Crew
Usually a locational surname, originally meaning someone from a place called Crew or Crewe.
The #8,127 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 75,654 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is best understood as a habitational name from a place called Crew or Crewe, especially the township in Cheshire. In older surname books it is treated as a local name taken from the place rather than from the modern English word "crew." The place-name itself is generally explained through older British or possibly Celtic elements, but the exact deeper origin is not always stated with confidence in the older sources.
History
The name appears in English records as Crew and Crewe, and later also in forms like Crews. It is especially associated with Cheshire in the surname literature, though bearers spread widely across England and later into the United States. Some older works also note Crewdson as a related surname, formed from the same place-name base.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries explicitly label Crew as a local name from the Cheshire township of Crewe, which helps explain why the spelling with -we is so common in historical records.
From the historical record
“(■> Uonhkc, whitlwr their boat wiU be Ukm In chine nl Aiplm, the UoiTmiti' witrnnon': Combridn! Crew (Sundard, Much IS, iffl?). Tbe first three instances above are from the counly of Cambridge. It is odd to think that Asplen is”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances